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Game 9 | Warriors hang on for victory against San Jose State | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Monday, December 22, 2003

Game 9 | Warriors hang on for victory against San Jose State

Nov. 1 at San Jose, Calif.  UH 13, San Jose State 10

Advertiser Staff

SAN JOSE, Calif.  With the game  no, its college football season  on the line, Hawai'i spiked San Jose State's please-please-please final drive for a 13-10 victory at Spartan Stadium.

The game ended with a minor hold-me-back skirmish, the San Jose State players growling over the officiating, and the Warriors still alive in the hunt for the Western Athletic Conference title.

"Oh, my gosh, it does wonders for us to win like this," said UH coach June Jones, whose team improved to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in the WAC.

"If we lost this one," UH safety Hyrum Peters said, "our (WAC) season would be over."

The Warriors saw their football life flash before their eyes when the Spartans (2-6, 1-4), trailing 13-10, drove 80 yards to the UH 5 with 20 seconds to play. After the Spartans called their third  and final  timeout, Scott Rislov threw a second-down screen to 6-foot-7, 270-pound tight end Courtney Anderson at the left hashmark. With the lane to the end zone narrowed by inside linebacker Ikaika Curnan and cornerback Abraham Elimimian, Anderson was hit by free safety David Gilmore and then strongside linebacker Keani Alapa. The ball was ruled down an inch from the goal line.

"I reached out and the ball was over the white line," Anderson protested. "That's how I remember seeing it. The ball was over the white line."

"No way," Alapa countered. "I saw him try to reach the end zone, but he missed it by an inch. I was hoping his arm wasn't that long. Luckily, when he stretched out, his arm wasn't that long."

"I heard their center screaming, 'We gotta get the ball! We gotta get the ball!" recalled UH strong safety Hyrum Peters, who began yelling for his teammates to get back into position. "The next thing you know, we were ready, but they weren't ready."

4 ... 3 ... 2 ...

Rislov then raced to the line, and spiked the ball, with the stadium clock showing: "0:01."

As the Spartans prepared to run another play, referee Gene Semko blew his whistle and waved his arms, signaling the game's end.

Semko, in a statement released through SJSU spokesman Lawrence Fan, said after Anderson was tackled, "the quarterback tried to run, was stopped, then took a step and spiked the ball."

Fan said the officials "felt the game was over because they couldn't do all of that in two seconds."